


Not So Bad

by saintmatrix



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Alex is a grump, Boyfriends, Established Relationship, Halloween, M/M, Zach Is a Beam of Sunshine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 08:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27348082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintmatrix/pseuds/saintmatrix
Summary: Zalex and Halloween.
Relationships: Amorowat "Ani" Achola/Jessica Davis, Zach Dempsey/Alex Standall
Kudos: 21





	Not So Bad

“Zach… absolutely not,” Alex retorted flatly, mouth turned down in an annoyed grimace tinged with barely concealed amusement. 

“What! Come on Alex, that is a fucking sick idea—us rocking that coif thingy and headpiece… it’s like an ironic justaposition,” Zach responded with fake exaggeration, particularly skipping his way toward their locker—an inconvenience on Alex’s part given that his hand was captive in Zach’s own. 

Alex groaned and rolled his eyes, “Its juxtaposition and also… we are not dressing up as gay nuns, that’s like wrong on so many levels.”

“Babe, you are no fun—the Novitiate basically paved the way for that very costume,” Zach remarked pointedly, head now scuffling through his locker and blind to the way Alex’s mouth hung agape. 

It’s not that Zach wasn’t decently versed in homoerotic filmography—it was just the concept of him watching anything that wasn’t characteristically cliche or specifically YA films. Alex wasn’t kidding, Zach’s favourite movie was _Love, Simon_ so learning such a fact was definitely cause for surprise. 

Zach let out a small triumphant chuckle after finally finding the book he had been frantically searching for before furrowing his eyebrows at Alex’s paralysed astonishment. 

“What?” Zach chuckled.

“You’ve watched the Novitiate?” Alex slowly asked, stressing out his words to emphasise his disbelief. 

In a way that was so Zach, the jock only beamed more at Alex’s surprise, an infectious grin plastering his face.

“Oh yeah, it was for World Literature,” he simply replied like Alex wasn’t looking at him like he had grown three heads in the past minute. 

“Right… well—,” just as Alex was about to reply, Zach’s eyes abruptly widened. 

“Oh shit—I forgot about morning practice, Coach is going to kill me—okay, gotta go,” Zach began in a frenzy, stuffing his bag with books before placing a quick kiss on Alex’s lips.

“Wait—Zach!”

“We’ll figure out a costume, don’t worry!” Zach yelled back in reply, already halfway down the hallway.

* * *

The slam of Jess’ textbooks on the table jolted Alex back to a state of stunned awareness before he rubbed his tired eyes with the insides of his palms in a futile attempt to semi-awaken. 

“Hey! Oh shit, sorry—,” Jess said as he greeted him in apology. 

“Yeah, hey—it’s all good,” Alex mumbled back, blinking a couple of times to return her gaze.

Jess must’ve taken in his tired state for a typical teenage conundrum induced by the unparalleled pressure of school and societal expectations (which it technically was) because she immediately launched into her question. 

“So… what are you and Zach planning to wear for my Halloween party?” she asked impatiently, clearly only bothering Alex’s consciously unconscious state to find out this irrelevant piece of information. 

“First of all—why is Halloween even a thing, it’s like… not even a holiday but a byproduct of capitalism and—,” Alex began, preparing himself to aptly educate Jess about this supposed holiday’s ulterior motive before he was rudely cut-off. 

Jessica rolled her eyes in frustration before letting out a dragged groan, “Ugh Alex—I literally do not care, you take any chance you get to debunk holidays and make them out to be this devilish tool used by corporations—,” she began wide-eyed and exasperated. 

“But am I wrong? Like if it wasn’t for—.”

“Dear Lord—shut up and tell me what you guys are wearing!” Jessica retorted with amused annoyance. 

Alex smiled at the sight of Jess trying to contain her amusement.

“Not until you tell me what you and Ani are wearing,” he said with a tone of insistence. 

The statement provoked a massive grin on Jess that ensued the conversational tangent that Alex knew it would’ve. 

“Okay, so it’s a tie between two concepts—I personally think mine is better but I don’t want to hurt Ani because she’s really set on hers,” Jess mused, shoulders slightly sagging now and face lacking its previous excitement. 

“Okay? So, why don’t you guys just discuss it and come to a compromise or like mesh the two ideas?” Alex asked like it wasn’t the most obvious and logical course of action. 

Jess rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time at his slightly condescending tone before agreeing that she was supposedly going to do that anyway.

“Either way, whatever you guys wear—you’ll look amazing… you aren’t Liberty’s star couple for nothing,” Alex said with a small smile, noticing the way Jess slightly blushed.

“Yeah, well—we are nothing compared to the classic jock and outcast cliche that you and Zach have going,” she snarked half-heartedly. 

“Ugh—that’s not even a thing, shut up.”

“Sure it is… but seriously, stop stalling and decide on something to wear or I’ll have to put aside my best panties for my best boys,” Jess replied with an air of finality before stalking off toward the cafeteria and leaving Alex’s mouth agape for the second time in one day.

* * *

“No.”

“Sherlock and Watson.”

“No.”

“Steve and Tony—come on babe, this is it—it’s gold,” Zach began persistently, clearly set on this idea despite supposedly being set on all the other 20 rejected couple costume ideas. 

“Like Iron Man and Cap? Those two fight each other for fun and going as two objectively straight men is just like—,” Alex began, about to get caught up in his ramble before seeing Zach’s distressed face 

“What?” Alex asked in alarm, worry beginning to consume him.

“You did not just call THE Tony Stark straight like how—Alex—that’s so—what the fuck,” Zach outwardly blurted, embarking on his familiar tendency to get caught up in stupid semantics. 

And so they wasted the next 15 minutes arguing about the validity of Tony Stark’s unexplored sexuality and when Alex refused to see Zach’s perspective—he was condemned to the silent treatment for another 20 minutes. 

***

“Zach… come on, we’ve got less than a day to figure out this costume shit,” Alex softly began, attempting to stifle his chuckle at the stubborn sight of Zach’s ginormous form huddled into the child-sized armchair. 

The jock just grunted in reply, tilting his head away from Alex’s intrusive gaze. Alex dramatically sighed before making his way toward the armchair and rearranging Zach’s arms to hold him by the waist so they could cuddle—which was Zach’s greatest weakness. Even though the larger of two tried to resist, it only took a minute before he melted against Alex.

“I’m sorry, okay? You’re entitled to your own headcanons,” Alex said, referring to their previous childish yet amusing disagreement.

“Yeah, I am,” he retorted, tone still firm and stubborn which only caused Alex to chuckle in reply. 

Suddenly, an idea struck Alex, “I think I’ve got something actually.”

* * *

Did makeup always feel this thick and uncomfortable? Alex could barely twitch without feeling as though his skin was moments from solidifying in place. 

“How much longer?” Alex demanded through clenched teeth, keeping himself still so that Zach could finish off the remaining bits of face paint. 

“Nearly done…,” he replied, dragging the y as his tongue poked out of his mouth at his utter concentration. 

Alex wanted to smile at Zach’s ability to always remain larger than life and just unchangeably happy—it was something that Alex was yet to achieve but was getting there with every day he spent with Zach. Sometimes he wondered what he had done to deserve him. 

“Ok… done!” Zach happily quipped, eyes scanning over Alex’s face to double-check before smiling at him so softly that Alex swore his blush was visible through the layers of paint and makeup. 

“You look… beautiful,” Zach mumbled softly.

"I’m a corpse,” Alex deadpanned, smirking slightly. 

“Prettiest corpse I’ve ever seen,” he chuckled in reply.

“Well… you’re not so bad yourself,” Alex said slowly, unable to keep his eyes off how devastatingly hot Zach looked. 

The fitting tuxedo left nothing to the imagination, disrespectfully hugging Zach in all the right places and somehow making him look buffer (if that was even possible). His signature stray fringe pieces were more pronounced around the crown of his face, adding to the boyish yet clean look. Even the harsh lines of the dark contour and exaggerated black shadows did nothing to hide his unparalleled beauty. Zach was a sight for sore eyes and would even look drop-dead gorgeous in anything.

Alex must have been caught up in his boyfriend’s impeccable everything because he flinched when his name was called. 

“Alex—you ready to go? Party starts in 10,” Zach asked, hand outstretched and waiting. 

Alex mentally prepared himself before nodding and putting his hand into Zach’s own.

* * *

Halloween brought out the neighbourhood freaks in all the best ways. Lawns became graveyards, corpses dangled from trees and cobwebs spanned every doorway to candy should you dare enter and Jess’ house was no exception. When they entered, the scene was more resemblant of regular house parties with booming, mediocre music and the familiarity of passed out lightweights save for the incessant amount of Dollar Avenue decorations. Alex amusedly took in the scene before he saw Jessica and Ani shocked gazes across the room.

Zach must’ve noticed too because a second later he said, “Oh—here they come.”

Jessica’s mouth was yet to close before she let out an eye-piercing screech in response, “Shut up! Victor and Emily… from the Corpse Bride? You guys, what the fuck—you look incredible.” 

Ani chuckled in fond amazement, “You two definitely take the prize for best couples costume.”

Zach was yet to calm his huge grin, “Can you believe it was Alex’s idea?”

The revelation only caused Jessica’s eyes to further widen in response.

“Okay—so my mom had old wigs and shit lying around—it’s not that big—,” he began, attempting to save his reputation before Justin Foley erupted into a fit of laughter.

“Holy fuck, nice dress Standall,” Justin said, voice filled with surprising sincerity as he picked at the torn shreds of Alex’s moms now old nightgown. 

“And the wig… where did you even get this thing?” The brunette slurred, clearly drunk but still fixated on his getup but now annoyingly prodding at Alex’s wig. 

Luckily, Clay came to the rescue and took Justin back to the kitchen but not before complimenting their outfit and sharing a similar look of uncensored astonishment. 

Zach saw his teammates across the room, quickly pecking Alex on the lips before navigating toward them in greeting. 

Alex smiled at Jess, her gaze firmly on Ani who was engaged in conversation with some junior kid.

“Rue and Jules, huh?” Alex asked. 

Jess chuckled, “Yeah—best compromise we could come up with,” voice clearly happy with the decision. 

“Well if you’re rallying for 2nd place, I think you guys might have a chance,” Alex quipped. 

Jess erupted into a fit of giggles before embracing Alex into a hug. 

So maybe Halloween wasn’t all that bad after all, especially when spent in the company of people he loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, realised that Halloween was a few days ago and since the zalex tag was super quiet, I couldn't help but make a return and add a lil smth. It's short but I hope y'all enjoyed it. I would give anything to see this outfit come to life so someone pls fanart it or smth. Also, the ch*lex's are catching up and it's downright racism to let them be the most written ship on the 13 ao3, zalex is the blueprint and deserved that endgame we were robbed of. Ok, enough ranting - write more fics to keep us above them hehe bye.
> 
> \- avon


End file.
